WHITE HOUSE

US President Donald Trump is looking at former Secretary of the Navy James Webb, a former Democratic senator, and advocate of confronting China, as his next secretary of defense to replace James Mattis, the US media said Thursday.

Webb, who served as secretary of the Navy under Republican President Ronald Reagan was a critic of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and may be asked to implement US troop withdrawals from both Syria and Afghanistan, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Fox News host Sean Hannity suggested Trump is open to accepting DACA amnesty in exchange for Democrat support for a border wall.

Hannity, a known confidant of President Trump, floated the proposal on his Fox News program, suggesting the President is actually considering the proposal. “The President is willing to negotiate DACA,” Hannity confirmed during his opening monologue:

Israel is a little shocked at how indifferent President Trump seemed to be about Iran’s presence in Syria.

US President Donald Trump said that in regard to Iran’s role in Syria “they can do whatever they want there, frankly.” The president added that the situation in Iran has changed in recent months as a result of the renewed US sanctions.

During a meeting of his Cabinet, Trump explained that the Ayatollah regime is withdrawing its forces from Syria and Yemen. There are weekly protests and their situation is very bad. He added that he may sit down to negotiate with the Iranians; but he felt that they are not willing to sit with him at the moment.

A+ Good risk/reward play by Romney
President Trump’s comments on walls that exist and work
Anti-Trump forced to deal with Obama and Popes walls
“Sand and Death”, President Trump’s branding is excellent
Visual persuasion examples and the essence of issues
AOC in group picture of new House members
AOC once again, makes the right choice when others don’t
Focusing on ice to determine if climate change is real
Is ice increasing or decreasing in net total?
How do we not know the clear answer to that question?
Steve Goddard and Tony Heller are the same guy
One powerful skeptic voice…not two, pen name
Rebuttal charts for temperature data on climate change
The most basic, easily verifiable facts aren’t agreed on?
Are nuclear and fusion power cost effective or not?
Really smart people aren’t in agreement

The 116th Congress is being seated Thursday, with Democrats taking the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives after eight years out of power. The first order of business was electing Rep. Nancy Pelosi to be House speaker for the second time.

The House convened at noon. After Pelosi was confirmed, the new members will be sworn in. Once the ceremonial parts of the day are completed, the session may get more contentious.

Pelosi has announced plans to immediately pass a spending bill to end the government shutdown. However, the bill does not include funding for a border wall, so President Trump has said that he will not sign it.

US President Donald Trump has slammed the Pentagon's inspector-general for releasing reports about Iraq and Afghanistan to the public, demanding even less transparency from one of the country's least transparent agencies.

Trump told acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan he wanted to stop releasing the watchdog reports to the public immediately, calling the practice “insane” during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

CNN “reporter” Oliver Darcy, who was instrumental in getting radio host Alex Jones de-platformed from the internet’s major social networks (so much for the “free press”) is on another crusade, this time advocating to censor President Donald J. Trump.

Drugmakers kicked off 2019 with price increases in the United States on more than 250 prescription drugs, including the world’s top-selling medicine, Humira, although the pace of price hikes was slower than last year.

The industry has been under pressure by the U.S. President Donald Trump to hold their prices level as his administration works on plans aimed at lowering the costs of medications for consumers in the world’s most expensive pharmaceutical market.

During a White House meeting with members of his Cabinet, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he expected to see a tremendous decrease in drug prices. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar was at the meeting.

3. Politics will get even crazier
This is the easiest prediction in the history of predicting. The US just handed the House of Representatives to Democrats who have been itching to destroy the president for two interminable years. Given a chance to make those dreams a reality, the Dems will throw everything in the political dirty tricks handbook at the executive branch. The result: something much worse than gridlock. Let’s call it “chaos” until the media coins catchier term.

Across the pond, Brexit is looking decidedly “hard,” meaning the UK just leaves the EU and lets the lawyers sort out who owes what to whom and who gets to go where when.

A California Democratic congressman is using his party's first day controlling the House of Representatives to file an impeachment resolution against President Donald Trump.

Rep. Brad Sherman introduced an identical bill in 2017, charging that Trump obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey just months after moving into the White House.

The resolution accuses Trump of 'threatening, and then terminating' Comey because he knew the FBI was investigating then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and 'conducting one or more investigations into Russian state interference in the 2016 campaign.'

Sherman told the Los Angeles Times that 'there is no reason' Congress shouldn't consider impeachment: 'Every day, Donald Trump shows that leaving the White House would be good for our country.'

Webmaster's Commentary:

The House can (and probably will) impeach, but the Senate will not convict.

In comments Wednesday, President Trump caused a substantial stir in noting the Soviet Union’s collapse in the wake of their disastrous war in Afghanistan. This caused a flurry of backlash in the media questioning the historical accuracy of the statement.

Trump said that the Soviet Union was bankrupted by the Afghan War, leading an official at the American Enterprise Institute claiming the cost of the war was “an insignificant portion of the Soviet GDP.”

Of course, the Soviets didn’t literally declare bankruptcy at all, but their decisive defeat in Afghanistan was the beginning of the end of their attempts to heavily project power abroad. The not-inconsequential inherent problems in Communism were also a clear factor, but Afghanistan was an eye-opener, and sped up the inevitable collapse.

With little resistance from a friendly White House, Israel has launched a new settlement push in the West Bank since President Donald Trump took office, laying the groundwork for what could be the largest construction binge in years, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.

The figures, gathered from official government sources by the anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now, show an increase in building in 2018 and a sharp spike in planning for future construction.

The trend, highlighted last week when an Israeli committee advanced plans for thousands more settlement homes on occupied lands, has only deepened Palestinian mistrust of the Trump administration as it says it is preparing to roll out a Middle East peace plan.

Donald Trump has been complaining for years about the promiscuous use of American military personnel. Two weeks ago, he did something about it, announcing the withdrawal of 2,000 troops from Syria and 7,000 from Afghanistan.

Republicans joined Democrats in condemning Trump for acting impulsively, sowing "chaos," and precipitating a "national security crisis." But it's the president's overwrought critics who are making choices without thinking, driven by the momentum of military mistakes to support open-ended commitments that make no sense.

The U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war was never authorized by Congress, and its aims were nebulous. A few months ago, Trump's national security adviser was saying American forces would stay in Syria as long as Iran or its proxies are operating there—in other words, indefinitely.

As the year came to an end and another began,
And the snowflakes took flight all over the land,
Crazy tales were told to rapt children ‘round fires,
of a plan – a great plan – to bring peace to holy shires.

The Ultimate Deal™, the Deal of the Century,
call it what you will, this plan will give sanctuary,
to the weak and the weary and the rich and the poor,
to all except you, you’re Palestinian, you sucker!

This was not Nikki Haley’s Christmas message to the United Nations. Which is a shame: It would have been honest.

President Donald Trump told reporters that his planned withdrawal of US troops from Syria would take place over an unspecified “period of time,” adding that previous reports of a withdrawal within four months were false.

In his first Cabinet meeting of the new year, President Trump went off-script with reporters, slamming recently-departed Defense Secretary Jim "mad dog" Mattis, claiming he "essentially fired" the four-star general, who abruptly resigned last month.

Trashing Mattis' management of the Afghanistan war, Trump reminded reporters that Mattis had personally thanked him for helping secure $716 billion for national security in the current fiscal year. But then he quickly rebuked:

"What’s he done for me?” Trump said.

“How had he done in Afghanistan? Not too good.”

Adding that:

"I think I would have been a good general...but who knows.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is one of the most utterly tasteless, ill-conceived statements this President has ever uttered, and as we all know, is far from his first, consistently, and nearly pathologically, taking potshots at fired executives within his government.

So Mr. President,some words of wisdom; it would good for our country, at this point, if you could, please, try to contain your hubris, coupled with your outrage against people you recommended for serious high-level positions in the administration, then fired, somewhere other that twitter, or public events or addresses.

A diary would be a nice idea, perhaps, in a cuneiform that only you can read, which stays close to you at all times.

In closing, I would like to share the article indicating how much the people who served under Mattis, felt about him:

I'm going to take this opportunity to discuss what happened a while back when Hilary Clinton made the following statements about the so called fake news. I'm sure everyone has heard the argument from the mainstream media by now that mainstream news outlets called the presidential election for Hilary Clinton and were probably hoping that if they said it enough times then this would provide enough social proof for voters to go out there and vote for Hilary. By the way her presidential campaign cost over one billion dollars. When she lost she was throwing furniture around the room on election and getting violent with people. But when she finally calmed down she brought up the issue of fake news at a speech for Harry Reid's retirement party mentioning that the US government and Silicon Valley were going to team up and start to punish fake news sites.

Comparing the strong points of climate experts and climate skeptics
The need for a conversation between the two sides
Bill Gates says the world needs to be working on nuclear power
It’s the biggest news in the world
Lower energy costs would allow reforestation of deserts
President Trump’s personality allows him to do things others wouldn’t
Stock market tanked 6% because Fed said market to hot, and slowed
The economy is SO GOOD…the Fed had to slow it down

US President Donald Trump is pulling out troops from Syria and ending war in Afghanistan in order to focus on economic negotiations with China, an American writer and academic says.

James Petras, a retired professor who has published on political issues with particular focus on Latin America, the Middle East and imperialism, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday.

The US has reportedly evacuated a military base in Syria, the first step towards delivering on Trump’s recent pledge to pull American forces out of the Arab country.

According to local residents of al-Malikiya, in the northeastern province of Hasakeh, some 50 American soldiers had already left the base and traveled to a base in Iraq, along with their armored vehicles and other equipment.

President Donald Trump invited Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to the White House on Monday, saying he is 'ready, willing and able' to negotiate a path to reopening the federal government.

'I'm in Washington, I'm ready, willing and able. I'm in the White House, I'm ready to go. They can come over right now, they could've come over anytime,' the president told Fox News in an interview to be broadcast on New Year's Eve.

'I spent Christmas in the White House, I spent New Year's Eve now in the White House. And you know, I'm here, I'm ready to go. It's very important. A lot of people are looking to get their paycheck, so I'm ready to go whenever they want. No, we are not giving up. We have to have border security and the wall is a big part of border security. The biggest part,' he added.

Pelosi arrived at the U.S. Capitol late Monday afternoon after a holiday trip to Hawaii. She is preparing to take over as speaker of the House on Thursday.

"The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. … the time has come for President Assad to step aside."

France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain’s David Cameron signed on to the Obama ultimatum: Assad must go!

Seven years and 500,000 dead Syrians later, it is Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron who are gone. Assad still rules in Damascus, and the 2,000 Americans in Syria are coming home. Soon, says President Donald Trump.

The United States and Israel are set to leave Unesco, the United Nations cultural agency, late on Monday over the body’s decision to recognise several contested landmarks as belonging to the State of Palestine.

The withdrawal, which takes effect at midnight, comes one year after US President Donald Trump removed Washington as a member of the body, a move closely followed by Israel.

The agency is one of the most important in the world, serving as a protector of some of the most historic sites by listing them on its World Heritage list.

Two of those on the list angered both the US and Israel. In 2017, Unesco voted to make the old city of Hebron, the largest city in the occupied West Bank, a world heritage site. As part of that designation, the contested site at the centre of the city, the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims or the Cave of the Patriarchs to Jews, is also deemed a world heritage site.

The United States is unlikely to roll-out its long awaited peace blueprint during the Israeli election campaign because it wants to maximize, not minimize, its chance of success, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

Asked at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro about the timing of the publication of the plan, Netanyahu said Washington is interested in giving that plan the greatest chance of success, “and in their estimation elections are the time when it will have the least chance of succeeding.”

President Donald Trump signed legislation designed to establish a multi-pronged strategy for advancing US interests in the Info-Pacific region, the White House said in a press release.

"The President signed into law… the ‘Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018,’ which establishes a multifaceted US strategy to increase US security, economic interests, and values in the Indo-Pacific region," the release said on Monday.

The North Korean leader gave his annual address on Tuesday, setting the tone for domestic, inter-Korean and foreign policy amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has renewed a pledge to denuclearise the Korean peninsula despite stalled negotiations with the US, but warned he could just as quickly resume his nuclear weapons programme if sanctions are not lifted.

>>>

(*a return to "ROCKET MAN!" would be a boon for the lead up to The Trump 2020 "There Is No Choice!" campaign )

Louis CK hits the offensive Trifecta
Climate change debates least rational feedback
Climate change believers don’t act like they believe
President Trump’s tweet about the experts deciding border security
Border Patrol people aren’t engineers, but their input is key
Gordon Chang says China growth may have slowed or is retracting
America is more customer than supplier to China
Huge trade war advantage for the US
North Korea’s nukes were an advantage just a year ago
In 2019 they seem more of an enormous money drain
They prevent trade advantages and cost a fortune
CNN’s “Walls don’t work” isn’t an opinion…it’s just dumb
Walls are friction, friction always changes behavior
President Trump’s statement about military pay raise
Did he innocently get his facts wrong?
It was a mistake, but is it important?
The Left cares about “fairness”

AP’s photo of the North Portico of the White House, hanging in as front page news ever since Congress left on recess during the partial government shutdown, attempts a pictorial message that America’s consummately HATED 45th has been left Home Alone for the duration of the holidays.

According to AP, President Donald Trump has been “cooped up” in the White House using an expression that usually describes chickens.

That this was one chicken that flew the coop, leaving the ‘Home Alone White House’ on Christmas Eve to visit troops in Iraq and to meet with American troops stationed overseas, was totally ignored by both mainstream and social media with NBC having to walk back its Fake News story that the Trump Iraq visit never took place.

Washington’s hegemonic aims represent the greatest threat to world peace and humanity’s survival.

At his annual marathon Q & A news conference last week, Vladimir Putin warned about possible nuclear war, a growing threat because of Washington’s reckless geopolitical agenda, including withdrawal from the Iran (JCPOA) nuclear deal and INF Treaty, as well as its reluctance to negotiate extending New Start (April 2010) on reducing and limiting strategic weapons, expiring in February 2021 if not renewed.

Based on bad advice from regime hardliners, Trump falsely called New Start a bad deal favoring Russia. It’s nothing of the kind. It’s even-handed, shifting things to less war and more peace globally.

Last October, John Bolton called for withdrawing from New Start. He convinced Trump to abandon the JCPOA and INF Treaty. He advocates greater US toughness against all sovereign independent countries.

In the latest attempt by Russia to offer an olive branch to the US, on Sunday Russian President Vladimir Putin told his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in a New Year letter that Moscow was ready for dialogue on "the most extensive agenda”, the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit, most recently in November, when Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Argentina, citing tensions about Russian forces opening fire on Ukrainian navy boats and then seizing them.

Trump and Putin also failed to hold a full-fledged meeting in Paris on the sidelines of the centenary commemoration of the Armistice. The two leaders held their one and only summit in Helsinki in July.

President Trump is "reconsidering" his strategy to pull US forces out of Syria following an "eye-opening trip to Iraq" the day after Christmas, Bloomberg reports.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who sits on the Senate Armed Forces Committee - a harsh critic of Trump's announced pullout, said earlier Sunday that he would try to change Trump's mind during a private lunch since the Islamic state isn't quite defeated in the region as the President had previously stated.

"I feel better about Syria than I felt before I had lunch," said Graham after he left the White House. "I think the president is taking this really seriously, and the trip to Iraq was well timed." Trump has apparently devised a strategy with his generals in the field that "makes sense" according to the Senator.

When historians examine the first few decades of the so-called post-Cold War era, they are likely to marvel at the clumsy and provocative policies that the United States and its NATO allies pursued toward Russia. Perceptive historians will conclude that a multitude of insensitive actions by those governments poisoned relations with Moscow, and by the latter years of the Obama administration, led to the onset of a new cold war. During the Trump administration, matters grew even worse, and that cold war threatened to turn hot.

Since the history of our era is still being written, we have an opportunity to avoid such a cataclysmic outcome. However, the behavior of America’s political, policy, and media elites in response to the latest parochial quarrel between Russia and Ukraine regarding the Kerch Strait suggests that they learned nothing from their previous blunders. Worse, they seem determined to intensify an already counterproductive, hardline policy toward Moscow.

On Tuesday the Trump administration offered more than 150,000 acres of public lands for fossil-fuel extraction near some of Utah's most iconic landscapes, including Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

Dozens of Utahns gathered at the state Capitol to protest the lease sale, which included lands within 10 miles of internationally known protected areas. In addition to Arches and Canyonlands, the Bureau of Land Management leased public lands for fracking near Bears Ears, Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep national monuments and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Almost 200 trucks of the US army, carrying arms, ammunition and military hardware have arrived in the coalition-run bases in Northeastern Syria, the militant-affiliated Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday.

The London-based SOHR said that a long convoy of almost 200 US army trucks, carrying weapons, munitions and logistical equipment, left the US bases in Iraq on Saturday and arrived in coalition bases in Raqqa, Manbij and Ein Issa in Northeastern Syria.

In the meantime, the Kurdish militia reported that the trucks arrived in the town of Amouda and left then for the US-run bases in Northeastern Syria, adding that the arms and ammunition cargo is to be delivered to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The convoy arrived after the US military decided to withdraw from Syria but leave the SDF armed in the region.

>>>

(*sure we cheered for peace , but you have to admit , we saw how it went for the stock market after the withdrawal announcement !)

Senior Republican senator says president will make sure that withdrawal will ensure ISIL is 'permanently destroyed'.

President Donald Trump has ordered a slowdown to the withdrawal of United States troops from Syria, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said.

"I think we're in a pause situation">>>

(*but let's face it , war is the side our nation butters it's bread on , and the 4th time around 'Syria pullout gag' did make the so called deal making President appear as a Merry Maker in time for The "X"mas holiday Season , if only for a week !)

To the 1,000's of you showing an intense interest in THE GARRISON FILES! After I posted the video announcing it, GOOGLE sent this letter demonetizing my site..even tho we far exceed their requirements of subscribers and views. Since GOOGLE gives us no human to talk to, there is no way to challenge their draconian decision. We've completed the 1st amazing release..so rest assured THE GARRISON FILES... See More

A shutdown is a way to torture random government employees
The winner is the side willing to torture them longer
CNN pundit angrily declaring “walls don’t work”
Rule of Life: Friction ALWAYS works
Who will say it first?
Politicians provide budgets, that’s their job
Engineers decide what’s needed
What will happen to stocks, once China trade deal is set?
Climate sides both talk in isolation, never debate each other
The two sides aren’t disagreeing with each other
They’re talking about different things
Tony Heller talks about unaddressed skepticism
Temp data has been rigged, fudged
Historical records disagree with climate data
Why isn’t anyone challenging him, is he correct?
97% of climate scientists are all on the same side
That’s spin, 97% agree on specific components
Obama’s Ambassador to Syria…
President Trump is probably doing the right thing

Israel's Bennett and Shaked announce 'New Right' political party
Hayemin Hehadash, or 'New Right', will be a partnership between right-wing secular and religious politicians.

Naftali Bennett, the minister of education, and Ayelet Shaked, the justice minister, announced their new party, Hayemin Hehadash or New Right, in a news conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday and vowed to take votes away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the New Right will alternate between religious and secular candidates on its list.

>>>

(*it sounds exactly like what I interpret Zionism to be , so to me this sounds like a fresh injection of new zionism to Israel's political institution . 'OUR' tax dollars at work)

Donald Trump's official rejection of the role of a global "policeman" could be called the most important event of the outgoing year, Sputnik contributor Ivan Danilov writes, stressing that the cracks in the foundations of American hegemony have already become too visible.

Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal from Syria and a partial pull-out from Afghanistan have indicated that the US is no longer capable of pouring trillions of dollars into expensive overseas operations, says Russian economist and Sputnik contributor Ivan Danilov.

During his surprise visit to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on 26 December the US president declared an end to America's role as a global "policeman", stressing that it is "ridiculous" to maintain presence "in countries most people haven't even heard about".

CNN alone has 4,000 employees. The New York Times has nearly as many. And when she singlehandedly faces off against 49 people in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room and the less than 30 people on her staff take on a mainstream media machine of tens of thousands, it’s a true underdog story.

For a year and a half, Sanders has been reporting for duty as the White House Press Secretary. She’s been shouted at, called names, had her appearance demeaned, and was kicked out of a restaurant. Mainstream media White House correspondents, invariably male, try to talk over her and shout her down. But she’s been so effective that there have been calls by the media to boycott her press briefings.

President Donald Trump has at last rediscovered his core foreign policy beliefs and ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. Right on cue, official Washington had a collective mental breakdown. Neocons committed to war, progressives targeting Trump, and centrists determined to dominate the world unleashed an orgy of shrieking and caterwauling. The horrifying collective scream, a la artist Edvard Munch, continued for days.

Trump’s decision should have surprised no one. As a candidate, he shocked the Republican Party establishment by criticizing George W. Bush’s disastrous decision to invade Iraq and urging a quick exit from Afghanistan. As president, he inflamed the bipartisan War Party’s fears by denouncing America’s costly alliances with wealthy industrialized states. And to almost everyone’s consternation, he said he wanted U.S. personnel out of Syria. Once the Islamic State was defeated, he explained, Americans should come home.

Trump on Syria Withdrawal: We Give Israel Billions of Dollars, They'll Be OK
Trump: 'We are going to take great care of Israel. Israel is going to be good'

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday in reply to a question on how the U.S. withdrawal from Syria will impact Israel that "we give Israel $4.5 billion" security every year, and so "Israel will be very good."

Speaking to reporters on the way back from a trip to American troops stationed in Iraq, Trump said: "I spoke with Bibi," he saidm, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I told Bibi, you know we give Israel $4.5 billion a year. And they are doing very well at defending themselves."

Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm newspaper, referred to the withdrawal of the US forces from Syria and the Arab states' decision to reopen their embassies in Damascus, stressing that 2019 will bring failure for Washington and victory for the resistance front.

"The year 2019 will be the year of victories (for the resistance) and failure for the US plots in the region and return of honor to the regional states," Atwan said in an interview on Friday.

"Syria won because it resisted and the Arab countries are happily reopening their embassies in Damascus>>>

US commanders planning for the withdrawal of troops from Syria have recommended that Kurdish fighters be permitted to keep US-supplied weapons, a move that would incense NATO ally Turkey.

Three officials, speaking to Reuters news agency on the condition of anonymity, said the recommendations were part of discussions on a draft plan by the US military.

While talks are at an early stage, no decision has yet been made, the officials noted.

The Pentagon said it would be "inappropriate" and premature to comment on what will happen with the weapons.

(*they'll remain in the wild , of course , so the mess in Syria , like everything else , will , as has been US Tradition , as far back as 2017 , Somebody Elses Fault , because the US left Syria , way back on December 24th 2018 , when all that heavy Art was Dealt )

President Donald Trump’s announcement of an imminent withdrawal of US troops from northeastern Syria summoned a predictable paroxysm of outrage from Washington’s foreign policy establishment. Former Secretary of State and self-described “hair icon” Hillary Clinton perfectly distilled the bipartisan freakout into a single tweet, accusing Trump of “isolationism” and “playing into Russia and Iran’s hands.”

A Times' article portraying Chechen jihadists as freedom fighters because they are anti-Russian is an attempt to whitewash a connection between the Ukrainian government and terrorist groups, former US diplomat Jim Jatras told RT.
The British newspaper published a highly controversial interview with a Chechen who is fighting against anti-government forces in Eastern Ukraine. The head of his battalion earlier admitted that his fighters waged jihad in Syria and that the leader was even part of a terror group committing atrocities in Russia.

"Some of the battalion's gunmen admit to having honed their combat skills at Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) training camps in Iraq and Syria," the article says.

President Donald Trump trolled former President Barack Obama on Thursday over the former president's past stances on illegal immigration.
"I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration," Obama tweeted in 2011.

Trump has ordered more than 7,000 US troops to leave Afghanistan, cutting troop levels in half

In what appears to be the first major step toward ending America's involvement in a war fought for nearly two decades, the president has decided to cut the US military presence in Afghanistan in half, The Wall Street Journal reported. There are currently roughly 14,000 American service members in the war-torn country.

Several Iraqi legislators condemned US President Donald Trump's snap visit to the country, calling for the approval of a bill to force Washington to withdraw its forces from Iraq.

Salam al-Shamri, a member of Sa'eroun faction at the Iraqi parliament, in a statement on Thursday deplored Trump's surprise visit as violation of Iraq's sovereignty, ignorance of international laws and continued threat against the neighboring states, calling on all political groups to immediately approve the bill to expel the US forces.

Also, Jamal al-Fakhir, another member of Sa'eroun faction, described Trump's visit as disrespect for the victims of the US-sponsored terrorism in Iraq and the region>>>

A spokesman of Hezbollah al-Nujaba (one of the Iraqi popular forces) described US President Donald Trump's visit to the country as a violation of its sovereignty, stressing that the move will receive a crushing response.

"The foolish US president, Donald Trump, should know that Iraq has earned its sovereignty by donating blood and the US bases have no place in this country which is a pivot of resistance," Hashem al-Moussavi in a statement on Thursday.

He underlined that Trump's violation of Iraq's sovereignty will not remain "unpunished", adding that the Iraqi government should now expel the US forces.

>>>

(*This has Nothing to do with Iraq , but everything to do with Putting America First !

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has been a never-ending highlight reel when it comes to putting liberal mainstream journalists in their place.

Whether she was keeping unruly reporters from speaking out of turn or dropping bombs that force CNN’s resident primadonna to walk out of the room, Sanders has been the perfect compliment to this outspoken President and his administration.

President Trump and First Lady Melania stopped at Ramstein Air Base in Germany en-route back to Washington DC. The president took the opportunity to talk directly with key military generals and leaders aboard Air Force-One:

On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis would be “retiring” in February and that a replacement for Mattis would soon be named. Mattis’ departure had been the subject of speculation since late June, when it was reported that Mattis was already being kept out of the loop on major administration decisions such as the unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which Mattis had supported keeping intact. Rumors of Mattis’ exit as the Pentagon’s top official were then revived in September when it was reported that Trump was “actively discussing” his replacement.

President Trump and the first lady appeared in Iraq Wednesday for a surprise visit with troops and senior military leadership.

The president arrived for the unannounced visit to Al Asad Air Base, where he was joined by National Security Adviser John Bolton for meetings with political and military leaders.

"President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Iraq late on Christmas night to visit with our troops and Senior Military leadership to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Twitter.

Redeploying US combat troops from column A to column B, from one nation to another, from one war theater to one or more others nearby, leaves Washington’s imperial agenda unchanged – its rage for world dominance, its naked aggression against one nation after another, the highest of high crimes.

That’s the key issue the hue and cry over Trump’s announced troop pullout from Syria and partial withdrawal from Afghanistan left unaddressed.

Republicans and undemocratic Dems are in lockstep over Washington’s aim to rule the world, wanting all nations co-opted as vassal states, allies and adversaries alike, their resources handed to corporate America for looting, their people exploited as serfs.

The beat goes on. Trump’s announcement changed nothing. First, it’s unclear what’s coming in Syria and Afghanistan in the new year – maybe continuation of the status quo or minor tactical changes.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Sunday praised President Donald Trump for doing “exactly what he promised” by withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria — and derided the “armchair generals” in Washington who “want to keep us at war forever.”

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Paul said he’s “very proud” of Trump’s determination to get troops out of the Middle East.

Leave it to liberals to pin their hopes on the oddest things. In particular, they seemed to find post-Trump solace in the strange combination of the two-year-old Mueller investigation and the good judgment of certain Trump appointees, the proverbial “adults in the room.” Remember that crew? It once included Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil CEO, and a trio of active and retired generals -- so much for civilian control of the military -- including Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Until his sudden resignation, Mattis was (just barely) the last man standing. Still, for all these months, many Americans had counted on them to all but save the nation from an unpredictable president. They were the ones supposedly responsible for helming (or perhaps hemming in) the wayward ship of state when it came to foreign and national security policy.

Tens of thousands crammed central London’s streets. The roar of cheers was as deafening as the flypast. “We want Wilson,” chanted the crowd, packed tightly beneath a “brilliant mass of flags” stretching from Charing Cross to Buckingham Palace, the Guardian reported at the time.

In 100 years of US presidential visits, since Woodrow Wilson became the first Oval Office incumbent to visit the UK , the so-called “special relationship” has waxed and waned. And the warmth of Britain’s welcome has served as a telling gauge.

Wilson – carriage-borne in postwar jubilation along a Mall lined by 20,000 soldiers, their “bayonets bright in the December sunshine” – arrived on Boxing Day 1918 for his two-day visit and would be feted in London, Manchester and Carlisle.

One century on, and Donald Trump would also attract tens of thousand to the streets; a seething crowd united in protest beneath a huge orange baby blimp.

On Christmas Eve, horror writer and Hollywood producer Stephen King took time out to tweet another attack on President Donald Trump, longing for his removal from office.

“Tell your legislators and friends who are Trump supporters that it’s time to put partisanship aside. Trump is a train wreck, and the train he’s pulling is our country. He has to be removed from office,” Stephen King wrote.

My great great grampa fought at Gettysburg with the 6th Virginia Infantry Regiment,Army of Northern Virginia,General Robert E. Lee commanding.They were assigned the job of guarding Lee's artillery or I probably would not be here.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- One hundred and fifty-six years ago, America was ripped apart by the greatest conflict it had ever seen. Two years into the Civil War there was no end in sight, and rebel forces were making headway.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the high-water mark of the Confederacy, as General Robert E. Lee marched northward through the Shenandoah Valley with designs on penetrating deep into Pennsylvania.

Over the course of three days, Union and Confederate armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties, making Gettysburg the most costly battle in U.S. history.

BEIRUT (AP) — Warplanes flying over Lebanon fired missiles toward areas near the Syrian capital of Damascus late Tuesday and some of the missiles were shot down by air defense units, Syrian state TV said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Having just returned from two weeks in the curious environs of Washington, DC, I offer a few observations on the national lunacy deposit:

The de-Christianization of the country, or at least this part of it, is almost complete. I can think of hearing the word “Christmas” only twice in two weeks of trough-inciting retail advertising.

Culture shock: We stayed with friends who for various reasons, such as being in the business, always had a television on. At home in Mexico we got rid of the lobotomy box some fifteen years ago, seeing little advantage in paying seventy dollars a month for 250 channels, none worth watching, adorned with twenty minutes an hour of stupid commercials. Coming back to this was like jumping into raw sewage. Perhaps the worst of it was the contempt for the public manifested in running the same ad twice in one commercial break, and in the loving close-ups of pizzas with dripping cheese. Buy, buy, buy.

Retired Gen. James Mattis earned the nickname “Mad Dog” for leading U.S. Marines into battle in Fallujah, Iraq, in April 2004. In that assault, members of the Marine Corps, under Mattis’ command, shot at ambulances and aid workers. They cordoned off the city, preventing civilians from escaping. They posed for trophy photos with the people they killed.

Each of these offenses has put other military commanders and members of the rank and file in front of international war crimes tribunals. The doctrine that landed them there dates back to World War II, when an American military tribunal held Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita accountable for war crimes in the Philippines. His execution later was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

During the siege of Fallujah, which I covered as an unembedded journalist, Marines killed so many civilians that the municipal soccer stadium had to be turned into a graveyard.

In November 2005 US marines in Iraq committed a massacre of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. The slaughtering of unarmed men, women, children and elderly people, shot multiple times at close range, was retribution for a roadside bomb attack on a convoy of marines. The war crimes were extremely well documented and the atrocity garnered international attention.

When it came time to bring the marines responsible for the massacre to justice, Mattis was the convening authority over the eight charged with crimes at Haditha.

Mattis went on to dismiss all of the charges leveled against the marines who had been accused of killing the civilians and of the eight originally charged, only one still faces possible prosecution, but one can guess how that will end up.

It’s also worth remembering that Mattis is hardy deserving of the respect stowed upon him simply because he’s a military guy. In fact, Mattis very may well have committed war crimes while commanding Marines in Iraq. Per Aaron Glantz, who wrote a retrospective for Reveal when Mattis was first nominated for defense secretary:

Retired Gen. James Mattis earned the nickname “Mad Dog” for leading U.S. Marines into battle in Fallujah, Iraq, in April 2004. In that assault, members of the Marine Corps, under Mattis’ command, shot at ambulances and aid workers. They cordoned off the city, preventing civilians from escaping. They posed for trophy photos with the people they killed.

Now, it can be made clear as to why the FBI Director James Comey had been flip-flopping with his statements regarding the Clintons’ slew of high crimes, i.e. he has multiple conflicts of interest when it comes to investigating the affairs of the latter and the Deep State, at large

But despite what some of his detractors will tell you, the worst blemishes on Comey’s record have nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. A few high-profile acts of resistance to some Bush-era excesses have papered over his much longer record as a privacy-shredding extremist who has repeatedly advocated trampling basic rights for the sake of national security. Despite his much-hyped acknowledgement of the bureau’s past misdeeds, Comey’s FBI continued its long-standing pattern of racial profiling and criminalizing lawful activism. And completely forgotten today is Comey’s record in the private sector, where he did the political bidding of his corporate employers.

The James Comey memos were just released for public viewing and with a quick glance, a most cursory of looks, it’s obvious: The former FBI guy looks guilty enough to go to jail now. In fact, an American with lesser political protection and Deep State shield would probably already be behind bars, awaiting trial.

Mere minutes before the market closed at 1 pm ET on Christmas Eve, the S&P 500 broke below its lows from April 2017, signaling the end to the longest bull market in US history. And now that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's fumbling plan to "calm" markets by ringing up the Plunge Protection Team on the day before Christmas has spectacularly backfired - and a good chunk of the federal government is set to remain closed through the holiday (ensuring that the White House Christmas tree will remain symbolically dark) - the Democrats just couldn't resist kicking sand in the President's face as the majority of Americans tune out for the holiday.

In a joint statement from Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leaders chided Trump for "plunging the country into chaos" by obeying the whims of conservative talk radio hosts, repeatedly lashing out at the Federal Reserve and "firing" the Secretary of Defense.

Amid some confusion whether Mnuchin acted independently on his own initiative, or at the instructions of president Trump, when he called up the CEOs of the top 6 US banks on Sunday and the President's Working Group on financial markets, i.e. PPT, Bloomberg reports that Mnuchin did not pre-clear the calls with Trump, citing an administration official. Mnuchin also convened the Plunge Protection Team without coordinating with Trump, and instead both actions were done in normal capacity of his job, the official said.

Which is surprising because at the same time, CNBC reported that the Treasury was not concerned about liquidity when Mnuchin called the big banks (which clearly should have been find considering they all passed the latest stress test without a hitch).

Dirk Kurbjuweit, deputy editor-in-chief of Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine for the past 4 years, unwittingly put his foot a mile deep in his mouth this week when he reacted to a letter written by US Ambassador to Berlin Richard Grenell. His reaction presents perhaps the most perfect example of the downfall of news, journalism, the media in general, that we’ve seen so far. Most perfect among very stiff competition.

After Der Spiegel itself this week ‘outed’ its award-winning star reporter, Claas Relotius, as someone who had made up many of his lauded articles from scratch, Grenell suggested the magazine, and especially its editorial staff, shouldn’t think they can get away with putting all the blame on just this one guy. He tweeted:

Donald Trump is the richest president in U.S. history – but as he gears up for a re-election campaign, the real estate magnate could end up facing off against someone even wealthier.

The budding 2020 field of potential challengers includes no fewer than four fellow billionaires.

The wealthiest of the pack, by far, is former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The media mogul and gun control advocate’s net worth is estimated at nearly $52 billion, according to the latest Forbes 400 Richest Americans list.

That dwarfs Trump, whose wealth is estimated by Forbes at $3.1 billion (though Trump has claimed his net worth is higher). Bloomberg may be the best-known of the billionaires eyeing a bid – and the most likely to take the plunge, given recent trips to early-voting states and a public switch back to the Democratic Party after years as an independent – but several others have stirred speculation.

California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said if President Donald Trump's attorneys try to assert executive privilege to stop the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller's eventual report, he would likely compel publication in some form.

"I'm prepared to make sure we do everything possible so that the public has the advantage of as much of the information as it can," Schiff said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Schiff is expected to chair the House Intelligence Committee when Democrats take the chamber next month, and he said he would likely use his subpoena power to obtain and release Mueller's eventual report if he needed to.

With the US government shut down due to the dispute over funding President Donald Trump’s border wall, and his family in Florida, the chief executive has chosen to spend the Christmas holiday taking potshots at critics on Twitter.

Funding for about a quarter of US government services ran out on Friday at midnight, as Senate Democrats refused to endorse a House funding bill that would’ve given Trump $5.7 billion for the border wall. Trump was supposed to celebrate Christmas at Mar-a-Lago with his family, but elected to stay in the White House instead, tweeting up a storm.

It is safe to assume any child calling the NORAD Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve believes in the existence of Santa Claus, but that did not stop President Trump from asking a seven-year-old named Coleman if he did.

President Trump capped off a terrible week for himself nearly ruining Christmas for the young caller by questioning his belief in Santa Claus.

'Are you still a believer in Santa?' Trump asked a caller named Coleman according to pool reports. 'Because at seven it's marginal, right?'

Trump appeared to try to keep thing light as he sat beside his wife, Melania, in front of a roaring fireplace beneath a portrait of former President Abraham Lincoln. He had spent the day complaining about his decision to remain at the White House because of the partial government shutdown.

Despite a day of travel, Melania Trump looked stunning in a dark blue, high-necked dress and deep red heels, ready to take calls.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban expressed pleasure in withdrawal of the US forces from Syria, saying it reminds her of Israeli soldiers when they fled Southern Lebanon.

"The image of Israeli soldiers when they were fleeing from Southern Lebanon and left their mercenaries behind has been popping up in my mind in the past few days" after the US declared withdrawal of its forces from Syria, Shaaban wrote in a memo in the Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper on Tuesday.

She added that the most important issue on this scene is the image of mercenaries whose masters have left them behind, alluding to the terrorists and militants supported by Washington against Syria in the past few years.

"Some people do not yet dare to change the equation and to write in big letters that the Americans have escaped; because we resisted and they failed; because we made sacrifices," Shaaban wrote.

Imagine missing Donald Regan, President Reagan’s famously irascible Treasury secretary, on Christmas Eve. Imagine spending a morning normally devoted to preparing to mark the birth of a savior brushing up on the exact requirements of the 25th Amendment for removing a president of the United States from office.

But that’s what I did, as more of your retirement money and mine was flushed down the toilet, courtesy of current Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s utterly inexplicable decision this weekend to weigh in publicly on big U.S. banks’ ability to withstand a run that literally no one had said was happening, as part of a panicking administration’s unwillingness to tell President Donald Trump “no” about anything.

Which Mnuchin might have recalled when he tweeted about whether the president could, or would, fire the nominally independent Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell for raising interest rates faster than Trump would like.>>>

Turkish presidential spokesperson says US president wants to make the trip next year but no date has been set.

US President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation by his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to visit the country, according to a spokesperson for Turkey's leader.

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(*WHY ? if out means out , and we're getting out of Syria so Americans can put America First and other players can do as they see fit in the place ?
If There's Always A Catch , and let's face it , there always is , this sounds , albeit , to me , like the first snag )

Stephen Cohenreflects on major developments in 2018, in part drawing on themes in his new book War with Russia? From Putin and Ukraine to Trump and Russiagate.

The new Cold War is not a mere replica of its 40-year predecessor, which the world survived. In vital ways, it is more dangerous, more fraught with actual war, as illustrated by events in 2018, among them:

For all of us who worry about misguided groupthink in the Washington foreign policy establishment, the last 24 hours have been validating and demoralizing. The reaction to Trump’s announcement that he will withdraw U.S. forces from Syria has been reflexive horror that Trump is going against the great traditions of U.S. foreign policy. When in fact those traditions are the discredited ideas of liberal interventionists and neoconservatives who (somehow still) believe that the projection of U.S. military force in conflicts far from our shores will make the world a better place. Those ideas aren’t even traditional, but generational, rooted in post-cold war globalist hubris– which Trump promised voters he was going to reverse.